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Move part of firm’s initiative to identify 30 segment leaders who can help it reach its $5 bn revenue goal by 2015

The young CEOs are being selected through a process that involves nominations received from senior leaders, one-on-one interviews and final validation by their business group heads. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Tech Mahindra Ltd, India’s sixth largest software services exporter, has begun to put a new management layer in place by picking two segment leaders, or so-called “Young CEOs”, to drive growth at the company that’s preparing to merge with its unit Mahindra Satyam.

While Rahul Bhuman will focus on strategic initiatives in the area of education and finance, Raghav Kumeria will head a team for a new business initiative by launching a platform to provide remote technical support services for telecom companies and Internet service providers (ISPs).

Kumeria joined Tech Mahindra in November 2006 and was senior manager, platform services, while Bhuman was head of the smart grid competencies division at Mahindra Satyam. Both are yet to be assigned their new titles.

In their early 30s, Kumeria and Bhuman have been picked as part of an initiative by Tech Mahindra to identify 30 segment leaders who can help the company, which is combining with Mahindra Satyam (the rebranded Satyam Computer Services Ltd), achieve its $5 billion revenue target by 2015, as Mintreported on 15 February. The two earned combined revenue of $2.5 billion in the nine months ended December.

The move reflects Tech Mahindra’s efforts to convince customers of its scale as it competes with bigger software services providers such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd and Wipro Ltd, analysts said.

Tech Mahindra, which bought Hyderabad-based Satyam in an April 2009 auction after the company fell into a crisis following an accounting scandal, is awaiting the Andhra Pradesh high court’s approval to proceed with the merger.

Harshvendra Soin, vice-president of human resource at Mahindra Satyam, said in an interview on Monday that the “Young CEO” programme was not linked to the merger process.

“It is an initiative taken by the HR department to promote young talent. It is an ongoing programme kick-started now (April).” He added that the company hopes to identify at least five more Young CEOs by the end of 2012.

The young CEOs are being selected through a process that involves nominations received from senior leaders, one-on-one interviews and final validation by their business group heads, Soin said.

They are being drawn from the 80,000-odd employees of Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam.

The young CEOs, said Soin, will focus on five key growth areas—mergers and acquisitions, new business initiatives, partnerships, joint ventures and new geographies, while core operations will be carried out in the existing structure comprising internal business groups (IBG) and geography heads. They are also expected to develop capabilities in new technologies like mobility.

Each “Young CEO” will be given own teams for sales, delivery and domain support, access to finance and human resources and can seek top management intervention directly, said Soin, adding, “the returns can be quantified only after a year or so”.

“We will partner with our existing telecom clients in a white label shared services model, to enable them monetize cost or/and open up a new revenue stream in a natural area of adjacency. We will be light on partner side investments and high on returns” said Kumeria.

He added: “To reach $5 billion in revenue by 2015, we have isolated a couple of initiatives which are going to be in the market for tomorrow. If we move in now, we will receive significant traction.”

While the programme has been conceived and is being overseen by Tech Mahindra managing directorC.P. Gurnani, it is being mentored by Sujit Baksi, president–corporate affairs and business services group.

Tech Mahindra’s legal merger with Mahindra Satyam has been pushed back by six months up to 30 September, according to a filing by the company to BSE on 25 March. The Andhra Pradesh high court is currently hearing a plea by retail investors who have opposed the proposed share swap ratio of 2:17 (two shares of Tech Mahindra for 17 shares of Mahindra Satyam) for the merger.

“The high court order pertains to the legal merger. Operationally, they started working in cohesion within two years of the Satyam acquisition. Since then, they have been trying to integrate the two companies ambitiously,” said Alok Shende, founder and director of information technology (IT) research and consulting firm Ascentius Consulting.

Tech Mahindra earns almost all its revenue from the telecom sector. After the legal merger with Mahindra Satyam, analysts expect the contribution of telecom to combined revenue to decline to at least 50% because of Mahindra Satyam’s presence in other verticals such as banking, financial services, insurance and healthcare.

Dhirendra Tiwari, head of research at Antique Stock Broking Ltd, said a decline in revenue from the UK-based telecom company BT Group Plc. was a concern for the firm.

“Their issues with the declining telecom business will get offset by other growth drivers and diversification will help accelerate their growth. Then 13% revenue growth will be sustainable,” he added.

BT is Tech Mahindra’s top client, contributing 29% to the company’s dollar revenue of $329 million in the third quarter ended 31 December, compared with 33% in the preceding quarter and 35% in the same quarter in the previous year.

The manufacturing sector is facing challenges of slow growth and talent management head-on through a combination of talent-related and recruitment initiatives. Companies are putting in place structured measures and policies to attract, retain and nurture talent. Leadership interventions to groom in-house talent, and increasing the focus on young talent through campus placements are some of the measures they are going in for. Life in a manufacturing company is more difficult today, says Rajeev Bhadauria, director, group HR, Jindal Steel & Power. "In the post-Lehman times, there is less continuity and stability," he says. The sector grew by just 2.9% in FY12 against 8.9% in FY11, even as it battles the economic slowdown and attempts to meet an ambitious target of creating 100 million jobs by 2025. The 12th Five Year Plan says manufacturing in India contributes to just 11% of the total employment. In other emerging economies, the share of employment in manufacturing ranges from 15% to 30%. In such an environment, companies are going all out to attract the best. At Jindal Steel & Power, campus recruitments have increased by about 15% over the past few years. Last year, the company recruited 250-300 engineering and management graduates from premier institutes and regional colleges. "We do not want people who are conventional, but look for people who are agile, willing to learn and can upgrade, modify and change themselves in a continually changing environment," says Bhadauria. "These people should be prepared and acquainted with ambiguity and darkness," he adds. The company launched LEAD, a leadership exploration and development programme for employees across levels, this year. Employees are assigned external mentors and coaches who train them on managing themselves, others, business and change. In the next stage, those already trained by external mentors groom future leaders. At Hyderabad-based Amara Raja too, the focus on campus recruitments has increased because of expanding business needs. The organisation is expanding its manufacturing capacity in a second location, which means that there will be need to recruit at all levels in the near future. The company recruited nearly 50 engineering and management graduates from tier-2 and tier-3 institutes last year and will recruit 65 to 70 this year, says Jaikrishna B, head, HR. This year, the company launched EXCEL, an accelerated development programme for professionals in HR, supply chain and finance. It has also tied up with external consultants and institutes for designing course content. Tractor manufacturer Sonalika Group has trained its focus on growing and developing talent from within, offering richer roles and clearer career paths to employees. "The focus is on hiring talent which can power rapid growth, meet strategic priorities and bring about business transformation through innovation and leveraging information technology," says Vittal Santhanam, general manager, HR.

They used to be called offshore service providers. It is better to now call them global service multinationals. India's IT giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro increasingly employ local hires in a growing number of overseas offices and software delivery centres. "The Indian IT companies are just beginning to transform into truly multinational companies. Till now they only had sales oriented staff in offshore offices. Now they have started setting up delivery centres globally just like a Microsoft or IBM. Hence with time they will hire more and more locals in offshore locations," said Pradeep Udhas, head of IT and IT-enabled service practice in India at consulting firm KPMG.

"For regions like Americas, the visa and immigration law makes it imperative for us to continue inducting local hires," said Priti Rajora, vice-president and global head for talent acquisition, Wipro Technologies.

It also helps that troubled economies in the US and Europe makes it easier to hire locals, Udhas said. The Big Three of Indian IT between them have 175 offices and centres across six continents. Wipro says it hires locally in 11 countries including Singapore, Australia, China, Japan, UK, Poland, US, Canada, Mexico, France and Portugal.

"The percentage composition of local hires (non-Indians) in the overall onsite hires hovers between 75% to 80% of our total onsite (overseas center) hires," Rajora said.

"Our numbers are driven by business needs and we expect the trend to be positive over time," said Nandita Gurjar, Infosys' HR head.

Wipro and TCS say local hires have a better understanding of their market and cultural nuances, besides local language.

Ajoyendra Mukherjee, TCS's human resources head, said even in English-speaking markets, locals were preferred.

Despite slowdown, Indian employers most optimistic, most bullish on hiring among 41 countries.

This will stand out as a bright spot in an otherwise sluggish economic environment. As we usher into the New Year, despite all the gloom surrounding the global and Indian economy, employers are holding onto the India story as they intend to increase hiring by 2% over the next three months compared to the last quarter . Backed by the buoyancy in the services space, and a possible resurgence in the financial sector (see chart) Indian employers have emerged as the most optimistic, as far as hiring goes, among 41 countries surveyed by a global staffing services firm.

India Inc is among the world's lowest paying employers in the IT space, with their mid to senior level staff getting an average salary of $36,120 (about Rs 18.5 lakh) per annum - less than one-fourth of the IT pay package at globally top-paying Swiss companies.

The IT sector salaries are highest in the world in Switzerland at an average of $167,890 (about Rs 87 lakh) per annum, as per a study titled 'World wide IT Salary 2011'.

The study, conducted by global recruitment service provider MyHiringClub.com, found that India is ranked seventh on a list of the 10 worst IT paymasters globally.

On the other hand, Switzerland stands at the top spot among the top-paying nations in the IT sector. The study took into account the average salaries for people with six and more years of experience for the Indian and other companies.

The report compared the total annual cash compensation and total remuneration information for IT staff in more than 6,000 companies across 41 different countries and found that employers in Western Europe are the best paymasters.

It also found that compensation in developed countries focus more on variable factors, such as bonus schemes, to attract staff. At the same time, the emphasis remains on cash compensation in the lower-paying countries.

"The impact of outsourcing and off-shoring on IT roles in North America and Western Europe helps explain the pattern of global pay. Lower-level roles are being moved to regions where talent is cheaper,"MyHiringClub.com CEO Rajesh Kumar said.

"India continues to be amongst the leading destinations for IT development, given its cost advantage. However, salary inflation and talent shortage could emerge as major challenges in maintaining this position in future," he added.

IT managers in India, however, fare better than their peers in Vietnam, Bulgaria, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, where the average annual salaries were even lower at $28,940, $32,560, $32,980, $33,000 and $35,870, respectively.

Also, large pay gaps exist between the junior and senior career streams in India, Indonesia, Chile, Brazil and Vietnam, the survey said.

Among the best IT salaries paying countries, Switzerland was followed by Belgium at the second spot with an average annual salary of $1,42,570.

Denmark came third in the best-paid list with average IT sector salary of $1,32,430, followed by the UK and the US in the to-five, with average packages of $1,26,570 and $1,21,460 respectively.

Others on the top-ten included Ireland, Canada, Germany, Australia and Hong Kong.

  Source: http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/indian-it-companies-salary/1/20442.html

That there is a talent crunch in the biotechnology sector could well be passe. On the second day of Bangalore India Bio 2011, it was reiterated that talent may not be the problem area after all.

The real problem, said industry experts, was retention of talent and skills, which was now available in abundance in the sector. K Dharmalingam from department of biotechnology, distinguished biotechnology research professor, School of Biotechnology, Madurai Kamaraj University, said it is imperative for the industry and the education sector to work in unison if the sector has to retain the cream of the crop.

“We need to produce students who are ready to take up jobs through the existing education system. At the moment, many move on to academia and other sectors rather than work in the industry.”

Statistics show that after gaining valuable work experience in the sector, close to 80% of these professionals move on to higher education overseas and settle there. The challenge lies in finding individuals who are looking for a career in the industry.This has also led to a gaping hole in the supply pool of technicians. Another byproduct of higher education is that these ‘highly qualified’ graduates target only the top companies when 70-80% of the industry consists of SMEs.

Shyam Suryanarayanan, founder and CEO, C-Drive HR services, pointed out that the demandand supplymix is skewed in the sector. A majority of applicants mentioned Biocon and Serum Institute of India as their preferred choices. Biotech is largely viewed as uni-dimensional, but it is multi-disciplinary. FMCG and cosmetics are also industries where the same talent pool can contribute heavily.

Ravi Dasgupta, vice-president, group HR, Biocon, said that despite being one of the top recruiters in the industry, the company still has 500 positions that go vacant, even after recruiting close to 1,500 professionals annually. These numbers are dwarfed in comparison to IT recruitments, which are on a much larger scale.

When an employee resigns, make the exit smooth and tension-free--who knows when she may return - Hema Ravichandar.

Exits have made their way to Page 1 these days. Not just the newspapers, 24-hour news channels are also full of them.

April, we knew, always came with largesse. Increment packages are announced (and it’s back to the pre-meltdown headlines of “India tops in projected salary increases”) and promotions are the cynosure of all eyes. But the quarter also brings increased attrition. The triggers are many—the angst of a perceived exclusion from inner circles, the relief in knowing that a hefty bonus that was due has been banked….etcetera, etcetera.

But why attrition happens is not the focus of this column. Rather, how companies process attrition is. How do they treat the swelling ranks of “separating” employees?

Attraction and attrition, separated only by a few alphabets, are accorded very different treatments by organizations. One, a favoured child, is where HR heads make their mark and earn their spurs. It grabs reams of newsprint, investor mindshare and management time. Companies invest significantly to ensure that their recruitment process runs like a well-oiled machine. Great care is taken to create an “Aha” experience for candidates.

The recruitment experience is religiously tracked, the separation process, almost never. Very much the poorer cousin, it is relegated to the background, mentioned only as an afterthought in any HR process review.

In reality, it is the way a company handles separation that shows the true character of the organization. Significant goodwill is gained in making the exit smooth and tension-free for the employee. The increasing number of exits makes this population an important source of goodwill, or ill-will, ambassadors and of course, potential future hires. An otherwise engaged employee once told me that he decided to leave the organization the day he saw his colleague’s harrowing exit experience. Which is why the ostrich policy companies adopt in dealing with separating employees and their travails is indeed surprising.

Chain of command

It, of course, starts with the boss. Once a separation is a fait accompli, it is interesting to note the reactions. Some classic negative prototypes come to mind.

The Pernickety Boss is normally quite chilled out and blasé about what subordinates do. But come a resignation and he is suddenly all focus and fury, insisting on the most detailed documentation and knowledge transfer in history. Night outs at work in the weeks preceding the exit are the norm and unreasonable demands on the hapless employee almost mandatory. “My successor deferred his joining date at the last minute. And without so much as a by-your-leave, I was forced to delay my exit and renege on my commitment,” moaned a departing manager.

The Martyr Boss walks around with a “how could you do this to me?” written all over him. Resignation submitted, the employee transforms overnight from apple of the eye to opportunistic mercenary. The stance is one of reproach, emotional blackmail and in some cases, a cold shoulder. Someone recounted wistfully how his once doting boss looked right through him in the parking lot after he had submitted his resignation.

The Boss in Denialis tough to handle. “Resignation? What’s that?”, seems to be his stance. Appeals for an acknowledgement or a relieving date are met with stoic silence. “When my emails went unanswered, I walked into his room to submit my written resignation. There was no response—only the opening of a drawer and the pushing of the envelope in. This meant no acceptance letter, no timelines for exit and no possible commitments to my new organization. I was in limbo and got to wondering if I had actually submitted my resignation or was just hallucinating,” recounts a manager.

The Vengeful Boss raises hell, literally. “I will show you what I can do to you” threats and invectives are the norm. The act of resigning is likened to the gravest sin. One boss gave a strict “Or Else” kind of warning to the exiting employee to stop socializing with colleagues at work. The directive covered canteen lunches, coffee breaks and water-cooler chats. Co-workers and subordinates were ordered to shun the departing employee. And in one act of total vengeance, suppliers to the organization were instructed not to work for the “pariah” in his new avatar.

In all these cases, the employee goes through trauma and pain— emotions which colour his memory of the organization.

Blessed then is the Gracious Boss, who objectively assesses the situation, accepts the resignation as reality and handles the situation with equanimity and grace. He endeavours to give the employee a healthy separation experience and keeps the door open for a possible rehire at a later date. One of the most popular leaders I have seen is charm and sensitivity personified with high-calibre exiting employees. His philosophy is simple: “Today’s ‘attritioner’ is tomorrow’s potential hire. And if not that, at least a great brand ambassador; a potential secret weapon in the converting of fence-sitter candidates into solid Joins. ”

Other chinks in the chain

The boss of course is only one piece of the puzzle. The attrition process itself is the other. The bureaucracy and tedium is in most cases irksome. In the quest for the all-important “No dues certificate”, the dignity of the exiting employee becomes a casualty. Mails to the departments concerned go unanswered; the buck is passed from one to the other, and exit interviews end up being disinterested tick-box interventions. An executive who had clocked several years at a firm recounted his experience with pathos. “It was really humiliating to go from desk to desk, 18 at the last count, to get the appropriate squiggles on my clearance certificate. I call this the ‘humbling clearance march’. And as regards the exit interview, the disinterest shown by the interviewer made it the most pointless exercise I have ever undergone,” he says.

Organizations that are focused on creating a positive experience and wise enough to realize the power of a positive brand among its employee alumni are quick to embrace some key practices. These could range from an “employee dignity protecting” e-separation portal, to designated HR SPoCs (single points of contact) who can be approached for separation related queries, strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) from the departments concerned and the soliciting of frank feedback from the exiting employee without fear of retribution.

Add to that a warm handshake and a gracious farewell note. A senior employee once told me of the heartbreak he experienced at the company’s callous attitude on his last day at work. He did not even merit a fond send-off by his team—his successor chose that exact time to call a departmental meeting.

So fare them well, make their journey out of the organization comfortable and wait to hear them sing paeans of praise to you. Who knows, the farewell may turn out to be adieu and you may soon welcome them back as Celebrated Rehires!

Hema Ravichandar is a strategic human resources consultant. She serves as an independent director and an advisory board member for several organizations. She was formerly the global head of HR for Infosys Technologies Ltd.